Mexico’s top stars reunite in this shape-shifting boxing drama

La Maquina ★★★½
Disney+

Ducking and weaving like the champion boxer at its centre, La Maquina is a Spanish-language series that refuses to be categorised. It is, in close and sometimes surprising proximity, a pugilistic drama, a buddy comedy, a bittersweet bromance, a crime thriller and a mystical contemplation. If that sounds overwhelming, stars Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna, as respectively ageing champion Esteban Osuna and his sketchy manager and best friend Andy Lujan, navigate the turns with ease. They even find time for a musical number.

Gael Garcia Bernal in La Maquina: hearing voices.Credit: AP

The show was created by Marco Ramirez (Netflix’s Daredevil) and its title stems from Esteban’s nickname, which translates as “the Machine”. A boxing superstar in a country where pugilism is a national obsession, Esteban is greying at the temples, separated from his wife, journalist Irasema (Eiza Gonzalez), struggling with sobriety, and wondering whether the voices in his head are his conscience or hallucinations. If that sounds tragic, the tone upends expectations. When Esteban comes to in an ambulance, neck brace on post-bout, he asks Andy, “did we win?”

This six-part series delivers a slew of set-ups in the opening episode, before getting looser and more intimate as Esteban’s doubts and Irasema’s fears come up against Andy’s dubious dealings, which unknown to Esteban have tied the welterweight’s career to a shady organisation. There are all kinds of risks at play – and, in turn, fears – and they spill out with sharp conversations and surreal interludes. When a drunken, panicked Esteban starts a brawl at a wedding, it suddenly stops when he’s recognised and asked for selfies.

The dynamic between Esteban and Andy – a chaotic improviser with a mother complex who starts his day self-administering cosmetic injections – enables Bernal and Luna to play off each other in illuminating ways. As Mexico’s best-known actors internationally, the pair shared a breakthrough turn in Alfonso Cuaron’s 2001 coming-of-age hit Y Tu Mama Tambien, and they’re a cinch as close friends who keep fraying at their bonds but never break them. Luna wears prosthetics to fill out Andy’s face, but the Andor star’s spark is always recognisable.

Jorge Perugorría, left, and Gael García Bernal in La Maquina: ambition is central.Credit: Nicole Franco/Hulu via AP

In the margins there is commentary on Mexican class and machismo, although some tangents fall short. The plot smartly empowers Irasema to be more than the concerned ex, though the addition of a new love interest for Esteban feels tacked on. But that maximal ambition is central to La Maquina, and a welcome sign that the show’s Mexican heritage hasn’t been watered down for an international audience. It’s an enjoyable mix of the comic, the criminal and the cosmic. Does it win? On points, yes.

Eddie Redmayne in The Day of the Jackal: engaging twists.Credit: Marcell Piti

The Day of the Jackal ★★★½
Binge

A menacing procedural punctuated by sharpened action sequences, this assassin drama is probably as good a job as you can do rebooting vintage intellectual property. Created by Ronan Bennett (Top Boy), this update of the 1971 novel and 1973 movie adaptation about a meticulous contract killer stalking a high-profile target, as an inquisitor draws closer, maintains a familiar framework – with enough twists to sustain engagement.

Casting Eddie Redmayne in the lead role helps. The British Oscar winner’s glacial cheekbones and mournful edge illuminate the archetypes that surround the Jackal, who is first seen at work during a German election campaign. Bennett puts the character on a tightrope: he’s an immaculate professional – crack shot, master of disguise, ruthless killer etc – but not perfect. His slips add to the tension, as does the personal life added to this expanded story.

As Bianca, the hard-nosed MI6 agent pursuing the Jackal across Europe, Lasha Lynch (No Time to Die) is a suitably flawed adversary, leaning towards questionable means to justify her national security ends. The broader geopolitics are somewhat fanciful, although on a personal level The Day of the Jackal has a sleek, motivated momentum. Most involved here are a touch too talented for this well-worn outline, which does occasionally echo David Fincher’s The Killer, but it makes for an effective genre piece.

Denalda Williams as Marilyn and Anna Kendrick as Sheryl in Woman of the Hour.Credit: Leah Gallo/Netflix

Woman of the Hour
Netflix

Anna Kendrick’s eclectic acting career – Up in the Air, the Pitch Perfect trilogy and A Simple Favor – goes up a notch in this uneasy 1970s drama, where she directs herself as a struggling actor who goes on a television dating show where the male contestants secretly include a serial killer. Based on real life events, it’s a true crime thriller of sorts, but the world that Kendrick’s Cheryl Bradshaw has to move through, predicated on male needs and female wariness, speaks to wider concerns that have not abated almost 50 years later.

Revealed: Bribe, IncCredit: Stan

Revealed: Bribe, Inc.
Stan

Does Nick McKenzie sleep? Nine’s investigative reporter, a repeat Walkley Award winner, has unearthed numerous abuses of power and systemic corruption this past decade. The best known is the court-vindicated reporting he did on disgraced soldier Ben Roberts-Smith, but McKenzie continues to uncover other major stories. This fascinating feature-length documentary encapsulates his work on bribery in the international oil trade. Starting in Iraq, it’s a vast cumulative story tied to petrochemical consultants Unaoil that’s given thriller-like dimensions due to the lengths McKenzie had to go through with a fearful source.

The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh
Amazon Prime

With Lost’s Naveen Andress as the easygoing dad, this culture-clash comedy about an Indian family relocating to America for a business opportunity has plenty of laughs that thankfully lean towards individual character traits as opposed to national cliches. Given it’s being told in flashback as part of a legal investigation, the show has a sharper edge than a predecessor such as Fresh Off the Boat, but creator Vijal Patel (Black-ish) is well aware that mother knows best. A surgeon with an eye on achievement, matriarch Sudhu (Sindhu Vee) gets some choice lines.

Billy Crystal in Before: mostly playing it straight.Credit: Apple TV+

Before
Apple TV+

For the most part, comic great Billy Crystal plays it very straight in this heatedly atmospheric but increasingly cliched supernatural thriller, which is a shame because some knowing wisecracks might have offered the audience welcome respite. Crystal’s Eli Adler is a child psychologist still grieving the suicide of his wife, who encounters an ominous child, Noah (Jacobi Jupe), whose references and inexplicable connections to the late Mrs Adler swiftly escalate into hellish hallucinations and nightmarish routines. The episodes are in the 30-minute range, but brevity does not save Before.

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